Carbon tax and low-carbon credit: Which policy is more beneficial to the capital-constrained manufacturer's remanufacturing activities?

Remanufacturing has attracted much attention for its enormous potential in resource recycling and low-carbon emission reduction. To investigate the effects of different government intervention policies on remanufacturing and carbon emissions, two profit maximization models of the capital-constrained manufacturer under carbon tax and low-carbon credit policies are constructed respectively. Then, through theoretical and numerical analyses, some significant findings are drawn: (1) Both carbon tax and low-carbon credit policies can encourage capital-constrained manufacturers to produce more remanufactured products, but which intervention policy is more advantageous also depends on the carbon emission cost of new products or financing cost of the remanufactured products.

Colossal Room-Temperature Ferroelectric Polarizations in SrTiO/SrRuO Superlattices Induced by Oxygen Vacancies.

Artificial superlattices have demonstrated many unique phenomena not found in bulk materials. For this investigation, SrTiO/SrRuO paraelectric/metallic superlattices with various stacking periods were synthesized via pulsed laser deposition. A robust room-temperature ferroelectric polarization (∼46 μC/cm) was found in the superlattices with 2 unit cell (u.

Improved energy storage performance of PbZrO antiferroelectric thin films crystallized by microwave radiation.

Energy storage dielectric capacitors based on a physical charge-displacement mechanism have attracted much attention due to their high power density and fast charge-discharge characteristics. How to improve the energy storage capacity of dielectric materials has become an important emerging research topic. Here, antiferroelectric PbZrO films were prepared by chemical solution deposition on Pt/Ti/SiO/Si substrates and crystallized by microwave radiation.

Emergent Ferroelectricity in Otherwise Nonferroelectric Oxides by Oxygen Vacancy Design at Heterointerfaces.

Introducing point defects in complex metal oxides is a very effective route to engineer crystal symmetry and therefore control physical properties. However, the inversion symmetry breaking, which is vital for many tantalizing properties, such as ferroelectricity and chiral spin structure, is usually hard to be induced in the bulk crystal by point defects. By designing the oxygen vacancy formation energy profile and migration path across the oxide heterostructure, our first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that the point defects can effectively break the inversion symmetry and hence create novel ferroelectricity in superlattices consisting of otherwise nonferroelectric materials SrTiO and SrRuO.

Ultrahigh-Energy Storage Properties of (PbCa)ZrO Antiferroelectric Thin Films Constructing a Pyrochlore Nanocrystalline Structure.

In recent years, antiferroelectric materials have been attracting considerable attention as energy storage capacitors due to their potential applications in pulsed power systems. In this work, antiferroelectric PbCaZrO (PCZ) thin films were prepared chemical solution deposition and annealed using rapid thermal annealing. The microstructures of PCZ thin films were controlled annealing temperature, and the effects of microstructures on electric properties and energy storage performance were systematically studied.

Resistive Switching Behavior in Ferroelectric Heterostructures.

Resistive random-access memory (RRAM) is a promising candidate for next-generation nonvolatile random-access memory protocols. The information storage in RRAM is realized by the resistive switching (RS) effect. The RS behavior of ferroelectric heterostructures is mainly controlled by polarization-dominated and defect-dominated mechanisms.

Enhancement of Polarization in Ferroelectric Films via the Incorporation of Gold Nanoparticles.

Ferroelectric thin films have been extremely studied for many applications such as nonvolatile memories, super capacitors, and solar cells. For these devices, improving the polarization properties of ferroelectric thin films is of great significance to their performance. Here, Au-lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nanocomposite thin films were prepared by a simple one-step chemical solution deposition (CSD) method on silicon substrates, and the effects of Au concentration on the ferroelectric properties were investigated.

Domain Evolution and Piezoelectric Response across Thermotropic Phase Boundary in (K,Na)NbO-Based Epitaxial Thin Films.

Recent research progress in (K,Na)NbO (KNN)-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics has attracted increasing attention for their applications to microsystems or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in the form of thin films. This work demonstrates that high-quality KNN-based epitaxial films can be synthesized by a conventional sol-gel method, whose phase structure and domain characteristics have been investigated with emphasis on the temperature effect. A monoclinic M structure is observed at room temperature in KNN-based epitaxial films, which is close to but different from the orthorhombic phase in bulk counterparts.

Resistive Switching and Modulation of Pb(ZrTi)O/Nb:SrTiO Heterostructures.

In this work, epitaxial Pb(ZrTi)O (PZT) thin films with different thicknesses were deposited on Nb-doped SrTiO (NSTO) single-crystal substrates by chemical solution deposition (CSD), and their ferroelectric resistive switching behaviors were investigated. The results showed that the maximum ON/OFF ratio up to 850 could be obtained in the PZT/NSTO heterostructure with the 150 nm thick PZT film. On the basis of the Schottky-Simmons model and the modified semiconductor theory, we also evaluated the interfacial built-in field and the depletion layer at the PZT/NSTO interface, which can be modulated strongly by the ferroelectric polarization, but are independent of the thickness of the PZT thin films.